If You'll Remember Me
by dazzley
Summary: Friendship isn't something that'll just go away with time or distance. But sometimes it's easier if you've got something to remember them by. One-sided Brooklyn/Takao.


Takao always feels a little sad when the sun sets. It's silly to feel that way, he knows, but the ending of a day just depresses him a little bit. Just the thought of something being finally _over_…it's weird. However, he won't deny that it's beautiful when the sun goes down on that distant horizon.

He walks through the park slowly, making his way back to his friends, a few mustard stained napkins shoved into the pockets of his jeans. He had made a trip down to the burger joint by himself earlier because no one else had the time to go (or no one else wanted to see him feast upon numerous innocent hamburgers and hotdogs), which he could understand, but that didn't stop him from sulking about it for a good few hours.

It's on his way home that he sees the sun setting. The colors seem to flood the darkening sky like paint splatters running down a clean white canvas. Pinks, oranges, reds...all those fiery colors that he would associate with explosions or bowls of fruit.

The sun is ridged with a hot pink and bright orange. The colors become more faded as the time passes on and the sun sets down so the moon can rise. Takao lifts a hand over his eyes so he can look at the horizon more clearly with less eye-squinting. The sun sets every day, but he's never really taken the time to look at it like this before.

The light that usually brushes all the life on earth pulls back with the sun and allows darkness to take its place. As Takao glances away, he sees another figure also surveying the setting sun. Someone he recognizes, actually, but didn't expect to find here of all places.

Takao walks up slowly behind the sitting figure. He's leaning back on his hands as he sits in the grass in a relaxed manner, like nothing but the sunset could possibly be on his mind. Part of Takao doesn't want to disturb him, but he accidentally steps on a twig. The quick snap of the twig and the resulting crunch of grass beneath Takao's feet cause the other boy to turn his head slightly.

"Oh, hey, Brooklyn! Haha, I didn't mean to scare you or anything," Takao says frantically as he waves his hands in greeting, "I just saw you here and wanted to come say hi! I didn't know you'd be here."

Brooklyn smiles a little smile, just a slight curve of the lips like the famous Mona Lisa. "I don't mind," he says in his usual semi-drawl, "Sit with me. I was just watching the sun set. It's nice, isn't it?" Takao resists the urge to ask Brooklyn a million and one questions. Instead, he just throws himself down onto the grass beside the other boy and stares out at the horizon.

But surprisingly, it actually seems like Brooklyn _wants_ to have a conversation. He picks casually at the grass around them as he speaks, "It's unusual for you to be out walking around alone, Takao. Did something happen?" The sweet smell of grass stings Takao's senses, the taste of grass lingering in his mouth and the smell hanging around his nose. It must have rained earlier, he thinks to himself, or it wouldn't be so strong. But he doesn't remember it raining.

"Oh, nothing really happened!" he says as quickly as he can, not wanting to conversation to die awkwardly, "I wanted to get something to eat and everyone had something else to do. So I just went by myself, it's not a big deal." "Mmhmm," Brooklyn makes this noise without opening his mouth. A small ladybug makes its way up Brooklyn's white jacket, and he carefully nudges the creature onto his finger.

"Ah, look at this," he says as he holds his hand out, "Pretty, isn't she?" Takao leans forward to study the red little bug, "How many spots does it have?" Brooklyn shrugs, "I don't know. Lets see." The bug crawls along Brooklyn's finger until it reaches the tip, "Three, it looks like."

"Cool! I used to try to catch ladybugs when I was younger," Takao says as he leans back and looks up at the sky, "Just to see how many spots they had. It wasn't even like an experiment or something. It was just because I wanted to." Brooklyn doesn't say anything; he simply lowers his hand to the ground so that the bug can make her graceful exit.

Takao watches Brooklyn's careful movements with slight awe. If it had been him, he'd probably would have just shaken his hand frantically until the bug flew off in some random direction. But Brooklyn was more careful with bugs and animals, wasn't he?

Brooklyn stretches his arms over his head and leans back onto Takao's lap, like it was just a cushion sitting there waiting for him to use it. He does it so casually that you would think they do this kind of thing all the time. Which, by the by, they don't. This is probably the firs time they've been alone together, if you don't count the strange dimension in Brooklyn's head when he went crazy.

A gentle breeze rustles the grass and Takao's long hair, but from Brooklyn's position he remains untouched by the wind. Takao scratches the back of his neck as a bead of sweat rolls down slowly, but he doesn't move his legs in any way. Brooklyn's eyes are closed now, as though he's taking a nap, but from his breathing pattern Takao can tell the other boy is still awake.

"Uh, Brooklyn?" Takao asks finally, "What are you doing?" It's a stupid question, it really is. It's obvious that Brooklyn is using Takao's lap as a pillow. He should have asked _why_ he was doing this, but Brooklyn seems to be able to understand what Takao meant. "Should I get up?" he asks, without opening his eyes, "It's so comfortable."

Takao shrugs his shoulders. Brooklyn can't see the motion, but he can feel Takao's body moving and can guess what the other boy is doing, "It doesn't matter, I guess. Are you tired?" "Mmhmm," he does it again, making that noise without opening his mouth, "You don't mind, do you?"

"Like I said! It's cool!" Takao laughs nervously and leans back on his hands, not sure what else to do with them. He can't put them in his lap (for obvious reasons) and he can't just hold them up above Brooklyn because that'd just be weird.

They sit like that together for a little while as the sun sets. Takao's mind goes off somewhere else as he sits there, somewhere with beyblades crashing into one another and where there's an endless abundance of food (he's hungry again even though he ate less than an hour ago). He doesn't even notice Brooklyn staring up at him until the red-head speaks up, "You make some pretty strange faces when you're daydreaming, Takao."

Takao blinks a few times and blushes a little bit with embarrassment. The blush stains his cheeks a light pink, nothing too noticeable unless you're paying close attention, which Brooklyn happens to be. He's wearing that little smile again, the Mona Lisa smile, Takao notes. But why, he doesn't know. Brooklyn is just weird like that.

"Do I?" he asks cheerfully, "I wouldn't know! I'd try looking in the mirror while I daydream, but then I wouldn't be daydreaming! I'd just be looking in a mirror!" Gosh, that sounds stupid, but Brooklyn doesn't seem to mind Takao's stupid comments. He looks more amused than anything, content where he is, and peaceful. So different from how he was when Kai beat him and he went nutso.

He's really changed, Takao thinks. Or maybe he's just finally accepted some things. Not that Takao would know what things Brooklyn needed to accept to be happy. But as long as he's happy, Takao is happy.

"I should get going," Takao says when Brooklyn closes his eyes again, "I've been gone for a pretty long time! We'll see each other again soon, right?" Brooklyn doesn't answer right away so Takao just waits for a response. He's not going to rudely shove Brooklyn off his lap and run away.

"Hm," Brooklyn finally says, "I don't know. We'll see each other again, but I don't know how soon that'll be." "As long as we're friends, we'll definitely see each other again!" Takao says quickly, "Soon… not so soon. It doesn't matter. We'll always be in each other's hearts, right? All of us! We'll remember."

Brooklyn has opened his eyes again, and he's studying Takao's face as though he's searching for something on it. Takao hopes that he doesn't have any mustard or ketchup stains on his face. He had spent a good twenty minutes in the greasy bathroom of the burger joint scrubbing his hands and face with soap and scalding hot water. He wouldn't have normally done such a thing but Hiromi had threatened him that if he came home dirty she'd really kill him.

Brooklyn smiles a smile bit wider than his usual mysterious one. It's wide enough that Takao can see the bottom of some of his teeth. They're perfectly straight and white, either he's had some serious dental care or he takes impeccably good care of them. Takao's so interested in studying Brooklyn's face that he doesn't even notice that he's leaned down to get a closer look.

He barely registers Brooklyn's hand reaching up to grab the back of his neck, but it's hard to ignore Brooklyn forcibly pulling him down to smash his lips against his. Takao just stares wide-eyed with his hands outstretched in pure shock. This was not expected in the _least_.

Brooklyn's mouth tastes like grass, too. The newly cut kind, where the chlorophyll is still fresh and flowing. Has Brooklyn been eating grass? Who knows. Neither boy has closed their eyes, but Brooklyn is clearly cool calm and in control while Takao's face is about as red as jacket. Partially from shock and partially because he can't _breathe_.

They break away about a minute later, or more accurately, Brooklyn is done with Takao's mouth and finally lets him go. The other male is non-responsive; like he's gone into some kind of deep shock and has forgot how to move. Brooklyn stares at him for another minute, sighs, and then gets up. He walks away while Takao is still sitting in the grass paralyzed.

Takao breaks out of it before Brooklyn totally leaves his line of vision, though. He coughs, stands up, and calls out, "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" He'd throw something at the other boy if there was anything that'd make it that far. There are only grass, sticks, and twigs around. Maybe a pebble, but if it was that tiny then it just wasn't worth it.

Brooklyn turns and smiles his usual cool smile, "Just something extra to remember me by."

He's gone with the next breeze, before Takao can get another word in. He could always chase after Brooklyn, but he doesn't. Instead, he turns back to the sky. The sun is barely visible against the sky anymore; just the very tip of the curve can be seen. He has this feeling in his chest, one he can't exactly name and one he isn't too comfortable with.

He turns and walks in the opposite direction from where Brooklyn has gone. His friends are waiting for him. Hiromi is probably going to kill him for showing up so late, and if she isn't the one to kill him, it'll be grandpa.

Another day is over, but tomorrow will bring a new day.

Nothing is over _forever_, right?


End file.
